Help of Neutral Countries in the Return to Life of the Women Deportees from Ravensbrück Camp

Culture & History Digital Journal 8(2) December 2019, e024 eISSN 2253-797X doi: https://doi.org/10.3989/chdj.2019.024

Help of neutral countries in the return to life of the Women deportees from Ravensbrück camp. The Spanish Women case

Rose Duroux Université Clermont Auvergne e-mail : [email protected] ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9282-9040

Submitted: 18 May 2018. Accepted: 2 April 2019

ABSTRACT: Nothing more usual than to find Spanish refugees of 1939 in the French Resistance as they continued their fight against fascism. Therefore, hundreds of Spaniards where caught in the nets of the Vichy Government and the Gestapo. They are imprisoned in the French jails (Toulouse, Montluc, Fresnes, Compiègne, etc.) alongside the French Resistant women. Both will be piled up in wagons to the camps of the Third Reich. Many ended at the women’s camp in Ravensbrück. Usually, the Spaniards were labelled “F”, “French”, because they were arrested in France. This “F” was part of the “red triangle” of the “political prisoners”. Some were even classified NN (Nacht und Nebel), i.e. called to disappear without a trace. As they were recognized by nobody (neither the French nor the Span- iards), this means: no mail, no parcels. They held on for life thanks to the links they forged randomly across blocks, satellite camps, languages, affinities... However, many died. For some of them, the release arrived in April 1944, thanks to “neutral” countries initiatives: in fact, a few Spanish women were able to slip into the Red Cross convoys transiting through Switzerland, which were initially reserved for French women. Others returned by Sweden. Others, finally, faced the apocalyptic evacuation of the camps of 1945 and the “marches of death”. We propose to study “the return to life” helps through some cases – obviously return to France since there could be no possible repatriation for these Spanish anti-fascist survivors, as the victory of the Allies did not affect General Franco’s power. After returning to France, this help continued for two or three years, in particular thanks to convalescent stays in Switzerland, Sweden and somewhere else, and thanks to one-off material contributions from the Swiss Grant (“Don suisse”) or from various organizations.

KEYWORDS: 1939-1945; Spanish refugees; Women’s camp; Return; Swiss rescue; Swedish rescue. Citation / Cómo citar este artículo: Duroux, Rose (2019) “Help of neutral countries in the return to life of the Women deportees from Ravensbrück camp. The Spanish Women case”. Culture & History Digital Journal, 8 (2): e024. https://doi. org/10.3989/chdj.2019.024

RESUMEN: La ayuda de los países neutrales en el retorno a la vida de las mujeres rescatadas del campo de Ra- vensbrück. El caso de las mujeres españolas. Que se hallen refugiadas de 1939 en la Resistencia francesa, nada más natural: prosiguen su lucha contra el fascismo. Se cuentan por centenas las españolas atrapadas en las redadas “vi- chystas” y “gestapistas”. Las encarcelan con las resistentes francesas en las cárceles de Francia (Toulouse, Montluc, Fresnes, Compiègne, etc.), las hacinan en vagones destinados a los campos del III Reich. Muchas van a parar al campo de mujeres de Ravensbrück. Las españolas son catalogadas “F”, “francesas”, por haber sido detenidas en Francia. Esa “F” se inscribe en el “triángulo rojo” de las “políticas”. A algunas las clasifican “NN” (Nacht und Ne- bel), es decir llamadas a desaparecer sin dejar rastro. No ser reconocidas ni por el Estado francés, ni por el Estado español, eso significa: ni cartas, ni paquetes. Lo que les permitió resistir fueron los lazos que (se) tejieron al azar de los bloques, de los campos satélites, de los idiomas, de las afinidades… Pero muchas murieron. Para algunas la libe- ración llegó en abril de 1945, gracias a iniciativas de países neutrales. Unas cuantas pudieron deslizarse en los con- voyes de la Cruz Roja reservados a las francesas que transitaron por Suiza. Otras volvieron por Suecia. Otras, por fin, sufrieron la evacuación apocalíptica de los campos de 1945 y las “marchas de la muerte”. Se estudiarán las ayudas al 2 • Rose Duroux

“retorno a la vida” a través de algunos casos –retorno a Francia ya que era imposible repatriar a España a esas super- vivientes antifascistas, la victoria de los Aliados no habiendo afectado en nada el poder del general Franco. Aquellas ayudas se prologaron después de la liberación durante dos o tres años, en particular mediante estancias de convale- cencia en Suiza y en Suecia, y aportes (materiales) procedentes del “Don Suisse” o de otros organismos.

PALABRAS CLAVE: 1939-1945; Refugiadas españolas; Campo de mujeres; retorno; Ayuda suiza; Ayuda sueca.

We would return. We would tell the story. the one hand, the Germans, who arrested these women in Later. For the time being, it was a question of regaining France and apprehended them as French. On the other strength, of recovering one’s own life, the one of before hand, the French deportees themselves, like Germaine or the start of a new life. Tillion says, encompassed them in the French groups. Charlotte Delbo Moreover, their names were usually gallicized (Neus can become Neige), and in the Camp only the first name was PREAMBLE: OF THE INVISIBILITY OF SPANISH known, as indicated in the first issue of Voix et Visages DEPORTED WOMEN (Voices and Faces), the bulletin created by the Associa- tion of deportees and prisoners of The Resistance, refer- My purpose is to trace the rescue of a few hundred ring to the “emaciated faces of Ravensbrück, that only the female deportees of the women’s camp of Ravensbrück first name identified”3. What is more, the active resistants (Northern Berlin) by humanitarian organizations of neu- usually used an alias: indeed who would recognize Vir- tral countries during the particularly deadly weeks which tudes Cuevas, spouse Codina, in her alias “Madame Car- preceded the fall of the IIIrd Reich. This story describes men” and “Madame Vidal”4, or Mercedes Nuñez, single, the rescue of the first deported woman who were liberated arrested as “Francisca Puig, born Colomer”, and nick- from the concentration camps between April 1945 and named “Paquita”. 1947, following the deceleration of transnational funds. The emblematic example of this presence-absence Amongst these hundreds of women, I will attempt to was given to me by the Nuremberg Process. At the hear- highlight as far as possible the rescue of Spanish women ing of January 28, 19465, Marie-Claude Vaillant-Couturi- who were arrested in France between 1942 and 1944 for er reported the “Martyrdom” of Leonor Rubiano, born their involvement in the Resistance. Spanish in Asturias6, referred as to “my dear friend Ma- The number of female deportees of Ravensbrück and rie” For Marie-Claude Vaillant-Couturier “Marie Rubi- its workplace satellites sites called Kommandos is estimat- ano” is French in her own right. A few lines of her decla- ed around 130000. According to the study of Jacqueline ration is proof of this. Fleury and Marie-Suzanne Binetruy (1995), the French women represented 8% of the camp population. On top of “So, 600 women worked for 12 hours without any venti- the list were the Polish women with 36%, the Soviet wom- lation. All those who worked at the Schneiderei became en, 21%, the German and the Austrian women, 18%. skeletal at the end of a few months, began to cough, The number of French women in Ravensbrück is gen- their eyesight deteriorated, they had nervous tics, caused erally estimated at 8000, an estimate which included by the fear of being hit. I know well the conditions of Spanish women whose supporting friendship association this workshop, because my dear friend Marie Rubiano, a French girl who had just spent three years in Kottbus has now estimated at 400, which comprises 5% of the 1 prison, arrived in Ravensbrück and was sent to the Sch- French contingent. neiderei and each evening she would tell me her martyr- The Spanish refugees “arrested in France and speak- dom... Dr. Winkelmann, the specialist of the selections ing French”, affirmed Germaine Tillion, “were mixed in in Ravensbrück wrote down her name on his black list the mass of the French women and did not react differ- and on 9th of February 1945, with 72 other tuberculosis ently”. From this point on, she would no longer make a patients, including 6 French women, she was hoisted distinction between them. into the truck for the gas chamber.” When I started this research about the “return to normal life” (a topic on which there is an extensive bibliog- The archives of three associations of the former Ra- raphy2), I did not know how much I would have to face vensbrück female deportees would help me in identifying the invisibility of my object of study and how I would the Spanish women: ADIR (1945), an acronym of the As- struggle to identify these “immigrant women” arrested in sociation of Deportees jailed during Resistance already France between 1942 and 1944, because of the Resist- quoted as The Amicale of Ravensbrück and its Komman- ance, and who were often Republicans of the Spanish dos (1947) and the international committee of Ravens- War in exile, but not all of them. brück (1996). However, for the two years immediately Several reasons can explain this difficulty in identify- after the war that this work focuses on, I had to give spe- ing the Spanish women who passed by Ravensbrück: on cial importance to the ADIR which was created in the

Culture & History Digital Journal 8(2), December 2019, e024. eISSN 2253-797X, doi: https://doi.org/10.3989/chdj.2019.024 Help of neutral countries in the return to life of the Women deportees from Ravensbrück camp. The Spanish Women case • 3 early 1945 and supported by its liaison bulletin, Voix et Swiss diplomacy prefers to hand over the responsibility Visages, whose title expresses the will to be audible and to the International Committee of the Red Cross. It is in visible (De Gaulle-Anthonioz: 1977; Mezzasalma: 2003; this context that the Allies grant the Committee the means Pavillard: 2008). Twenty years later, the ADIR and the of intervention (foodstuffs, a fleet of trucks) and that res- French friendly group Amicale de Ravensbrück (Amicale cue operations are undertaken.12 Swiss delegates recruited de Ravensbrück and ADIR, 1965) –which the Cold War in an emergency were sent to the field almost without had suspended (Chombart de Lauwe 1998: 192)– would preparation (Farré underlined the perilous compassionate publish together Les Françaises à Ravensbrück (1965) an initiatives in the midst of the final chaos). admirable book of testimonies, but one which Montserrat Roig (1977) deplored as containing only four lines on the Repatriations Spanish women.7 It was not until the 1970s that the Spanish women Nevertheless, the last weeks of the conflict allowed who survived –Conchita Boix, Lola Casadellà, Neus Cat- Geneva to carry out several evacuations of French depor- alà, Marí González et Carmen Ramos– began the general tees brought in by the frontier towns of Kreuzlingen, on count. In 1977 followed the study of Montserrat Roig Els the German-Swiss border, and St. Gallen, on the Austri- catalans als camps nazis. Curiously, it is at the moment an-Swiss border. when the ADIR dismantles8, in 2005, on its 60th anniversary (the number of contributors diminishing irredeema- First: Kreuzlingen bly), that the Amical de Ravensbrück9 was officially created in Spain, relayed it is true by the academics of The first truckload (5 April 945) from Ravensbrück to Barcelona like Mar Trallero. At present, this Amical has Switzerland of 300 officially French detainees constituted recorded, and sometimes biographed, 119 Spanish wom- the counterpart for the release in France of 454 Germans en and established a subsidiary list of 21 deportees. (Farré 2012: 209-210)13. The convoy arrived on 9th April It seemed necessary to explain further, as an introduc- in Kreuzlingen. Some returnees were hospitalized. The tion, the difficulty of identifying the group under observa- appearance of the survivors was so disastrous that the tion – before going into the heart of the matter, in other Red Cross decided to keep them a day. The authorities words, the role of neutral countries in the liberation of feared that the temporary base would become a long term deportees and the human-sanitary follow-up of the opera- stay (Favez: 397). The train took them from Kreuzlingen tion between 1945 and 1947. Only the anticipated evacu- to Annemasse where they arrive on 11 April. On 14 April. ations will be discussed, that is to say, the ones before the General de Gaulle welcomed them to the Gare de Lyon14, liberation of the Camps by the Russians or the allies, from where they were directed to the Hotel Lutetia, which sometimes lasting only a few days, but deadly days (Laf- had become a reception center. fitte; Bourgeois: 2009).10 Nevertheless, to begin, this It was necessary to cross-check to identify the Span- study will focus on the help of Switzerland then followed ish women among these ghosts whose numbered list (ex- by that of Sweden. ceptionally exhaustive) bore numbers followed by names:

HUMANITARIAN GESTURES FROM • N°18 “Dupuy Demetria”. As it turns out she was SWITZERLAND Basque, born on 22nd December 1907 in Mués (Na- varra); Mrs. Gaston Ganuza; For the first part of this review, I will refer to the work • N° 274 “Fludia Rosa” was actually Roser Fluvià, of Sébastien Farré11, who measured and problematized Catalan; the Swiss aid of the time: it shows that the intervention • N° 147 “Kerwich Laure”. This was Laura Gallart carried out by the Swiss in favour of the deportees occu- Marquès, born Catalan on 2nd December 1896 in pied “a secondary place compared with the one devel- Palafrugell (Girona). Like Geneviève de Gaulle, she oped for prisoners of war” (2012: 201) and this, follow- had been part of the convoy of “27000” (27181)15, ing Jean-Claude Favez (1988; 1989), who described this who had left the camp of Compiègne on 31 January intervention as humanitarian gestures.Two of these ges- 1944 with 959 detainees. tures concern the French women who passed through Ra- vensbrück: First, the liberation in April 1945 of three Three out of three hundred: this is below the afore- hundred deported women by the International Committee mentioned representation threshold (5%). The Ravens- of the Red Cross. After the survivors were repatriated, brück concentration camp was liberated by the Russian their convalescence care was covered by the “Swiss Gift army on 30 April 1945. for Victims of War” created in 1944 at the initiative of the Federal Council and financed by public and private- or Second: St. Gallen ganizations. Jean-Claude Favez (1988: 391) emphasizes the pressure exerted by the Allies on neutral countries The organization of a new convoy to Ravensbrück was (and also on the Vatican) in order to make “a supreme hindered by the impracticability of roads between north- step with the German authorities to obtain the release of ern and southern Germany. The ICRC’s action would then civilian, political or racial detainees”. On this ground, the move south, in this case to Austria and the Mauthausen

Culture & History Digital Journal 8(2), December 2019, e024. eISSN 2253-797X, doi: https://doi.org/10.3989/chdj.2019.024 4 • Rose Duroux concentration camp. We would find there the women of Finally, in the morning, the barriers rose, and when the “NN” (Nacht und Nebel) of Ravensbrück transferred on 2 last of the thirteen cars was on Swiss soil, sobbing, we March 1945 to Mauthausen with the Gypsies (Tillion sang an extraordinary Marseillaise, which made the 1973: 130)16 –who were especially persecuted–, thus mak- Swiss themselves cry. We sang while driving to St. Gall ing matters more serious. The “NN” were, as we know, where we met our comrades and Mom.” destined to disappear in the “night and the fog (They were forbidden parcels, mail and work outside the camp). We would tend to believe the Swiss delegate and fol- Amongst the “NN” there were Spanish women. low Sebastien Farré, who had tried to show the difficul- The International Committee of the Red Cross carried ties of the delegates hastily sent on the field. On 28 April 1945, the ICRC’s last early release trans- out three transports of deportees from Mauthausen, which fer was completed19. The Mauthausen camp was liberated transported 780 deportees of French, Belgian, Luxemburg on 5 May by the American army (Farré 2012: 213-214). and Dutch nationality. The departure from Mauthausen, What about the Spanish women? They were present in 22 April 1945, was done in 3 groups. There were the thirty the “NN” climbing on to the trucks of the Red Cross on officially French “NN”, amongst them, Denise Vernay, 22 April 2015. I identified seven of them but this number sister of Simone Veil. We shall see farther on that some is not exhaustive: Spanish women were part of it. A few days later, two new convoys ensured the successive evacuation of 183 then of • Bueno Vela Alfonsina (wife of José Ester, who 349 deportees from Mauthausen (Farré 2012: 210).17 would leave in one of the convoys just like Arthur In the testimonies of the Spanish women, the evacua- London, Czech).20 tion by truck on 22 April 1945 offers little detail. I there- • Da Silva Rosita. fore refer to the testimony of Mari-Jo Chombart de Lau- • García Carlota, known as “Charlie”. we in Les Françaises à Ravensbrück (1965: 273-274). • Martínez Angelina/Ángeles who, according to Ber- Her mother was in the first group of trucks; she was in the mejo y Checa (2006), would be treated in a Swiss third. She tells, on 22 April 1945: “Finally, the door of the sanatorium.21 camp opens, white trucks, under the sign of the Red • Martorell Herminia, born Rosales. Cross, come to us and we leave. [...] Our convoy is es- • Zapater Aguilera Carmen. corted by Germans. It’s still war. [...] We drive three days • Pintos Navas Feliciana, known as Mrs. Félicienne through Austria”. Bierge.22 Charlotte Delbo (1998: 41) included her as Arrival in St. Gallen on 24 April. part of the “31000” (the series of tattooed women) “A few days later, after having passed medical tests, the passed by Auswichtz, from which she was the only ablest will arrive in Paris on 30 April.” Violette Maurice Spanish survivor: “On 22 April 1945, Félicienne also remembers the arrival in St. Gallen on 24 April Bierge was one of the thirty for which the Red “We were kept for a few days in St. Gallen to avoid the Cross was responsible, was transported by truck to risks and to be fed gradually. Beforehand, an incident at St. Gallen. From this moment on, they reached Par- the border had shown us the fragility of our lot...18 is by train where they arrived on the 30 April.” The Swiss delegate Rubli is frankly critical of the border’ incident. The case was noted by Farré (2012: 217): In summary, the ICRC’s contribution to the rescue of “In his report, on his return from Mauthausen, Delegate the deportees was “modest”. Farré (2012: 219) does not Rubli complains bitterly of the conditions of reception hesitate to speak of “a tinkering line within an emergen- of the evacuees in Switzerland, which he considers ‘dis- cy”. This inadequate assistance at this decisive turning graceful’”. Column 36 (the one where Chombart de Lauwe is), and for which Rubli takes responsibility, is point in the World War was a contribution with no possi- blocked on 23 April at the border by the Swiss customs ble comparison with that of the assistance to war prison- authorities. “Ex-prisoners are forced to spend the night ers. This latter contribution was intelligently organized on the road, without blankets, hot drinks or food.” Rubli and administered, as regards assistance and information, also points out “the absence of sanitary facilities, shel- an organization which had already proven itself during ters and the transfer of evacuees in third-class cars”. the First World War (with reference to Farré work of 2014 on the War Parcels). In the testimony of Chombart de Lauwe (1998: 155- 156), it is not the Swiss who are in question but the Ger- Convalescence in Switzerland mans: As for the survivors, the physical and psychological “Finally, when we reached the end, night had already scars threatened to last, so the ADIR provided nursing fallen. The border was closed, the Germans refused to homes in French-speaking Switzerland, nine houses in let us enter Switzerland. Himmler came back on his promise to free us. Throughout the night, the trucks re- all. The first opened in July 1945 and the last closed in mained behind the crossing while the convoy leaders March 1947 (Monnier and Exchaquet-Monnier: 2013). tried to extract a permission from the Germans. We They were located in Crassier, Nyon, Mont-sur-Laus- were in anguish; Rather than return to where we came anne, Les Avants-sur-Montreux, Château d’Œx, Villars- from, we preferred to fight, revolt and die here. sur-Ollon, Grand Champ, Freiburg and Montana.23

This initiative was instigated by Geneviève de Gaulle, rín, Francisco Méndez Aspe? In Switzerland, she is and its execution was at the start the result of the testimo- Pilar Lubian. This mysterious and opaque Pilar nials of the survivors, especially their conferences –some (said Méndez or Gorbea, born in 1913 or 1916) was illustrated by their drawings made in the camp– and also in the convoy of the “39000” party of Paris on 13 of the investment of the French colony in Switzerland. May 1944, according to the Foundation for the For the rest, Swiss private associations provided about memory of the deportation. half of the funding; the other half was provided by the Don Suisse, which devoted a very small part of its budget The following three convalescents were in the convoy to it, but it succeeds in making a humanitarian gesture of the “27000” party of Compiègne on 31 January, 194 and a good showcase for the Swiss population. The survi- including Geneviève de Gaulle: vors arrived from Paris by convoys, after selection by the ADIR24, on medical recommendation. They came from • Pérez J. was in Villars-sur-Ollon, at Chalet Rose- different regions and backgrounds. They are mainly re- mont, opened from October 1945 to September sistant workers deported to Ravensbrück but there were 1946. Would it be Rita Pérez, mentioned below? also some Jewish women deportees. • Roger Neige, born Català, would stay for four The Voix et Visages bulletin concluded at the end of months at Mont-sur-Lausanne, at the Pension Hort- 1946: “We have nine convalescent homes in Switzerland, ensia, open from November 1945 to May 1946. She where more than 500 comrades have spent two to four enchanted the residents with her soprano voice. months. The GA of December 1946 was confident: “We • Vidal Virtudes (“Carmen”), born Cuevas, was in were able to maintain these houses thanks to the grants of Nyon at the Villa-du-Port. the Don Suisse and thanks to the special donations. All these combined efforts produced excellent results from Everyone was satisfied with the welcome of the January to September.”25 However, these convalescences Swiss, even if some were reluctant to be so perfectly su- presupposed a “big effort” for the Association. That is pervised, as this little remark of the secretary of the ADIR why Voix et Visages expressed sincere thanks “to the SOS in the September 1946 bulletin implies: “The deportees committee in Lausanne and to the directors of convales- are still tormented which is not always easy to manage”.28 cent homes”.26 There was even a discordant voice in the general satisfac- At the beginning of 1948, the tone changed: the ADIR tion, that of a young girl, hardly twenty years old, who bulletin deplored the end of convalescence, especially felt that she was living a supervised liberty: Simone Veil that of tuberculosis patients in Montana, and negotiated (Monnier: 75-76). with the Don Suisse, to direct some patients to Leysin and Davos. ADIR concluded: “It is obviously a pity that we HELP FROM SWEDEN no longer have Swiss funds.”27 The book Retour à la vie (Return to life), by Éric Now, let’s consider without further ado the aid of Monnier and Brigitte Exchaquet-Monnier, the daughter Sweden during the rescues of April 1945. At this time, the of a doctor who took care of the patients in convales- liberating crossings of the door of the camp of Ravens- cence, describes the organization of each of these houses brück would take place in the week of 23 to 28 April. in detail. The authors were able, in most cases, to compile It was the Swedish Red Cross vice-president, Folke the list of deportees from house to house. This identifica- Bernadotte himself, who obtained the go-ahead, after a tion required detective work, such as a signature in a meeting with Himmler, the transport of 4700 Scandinavi- guestbook or on a tablecloth that could be the sign of the an detainees to Neuengamme pending their repatriation. presence of a patient. The book was fed by direct and in- At the end of April, with the participation of ICRC trucks, direct testimonies (those of comrades or heirs) and he organized the evacuation of 2900 women detained in showed how a convalescence was formed that combined Ravensbrück (Farré 2012: 205). medical care, collective activities, exchanges with the in- habitants of the villages, trips to in Lausanne. This is also “Until the last minute, it was necessary for the repre- the period during which Brigitte Exchaquet and Éric sentatives of the Swedish Red Cross to discuss with Monnier, and some convalescing deportees, such as Char- Suhren, the SS commander of Ravensbrück the permis- lotte Delbo, Anise Postel-Vinay and Germaine Tillion, sion to allow all the detainees to leave, in accordance wrote their first analyses of the concentration camp expe- with the agreement with the Swedish Red Cross”.29 rience. To stay on course, I will consider the homes that re- Let us reflect on the trajectory of the 600 French wom- ceived at least one Spanish woman. According to the en –unless there has been an error, they were released summary table of the authors of Retour à la vie, these in- from the camp of Ravensbrück by the Red Cross and con- clude: ducted and cared for in Sweden before being repatriated. There were several columns of white buses, White Buses. • Pilar Lubian, received in Nyon at Villa-du-Port, be- The first convoy of sick women left Ravensbrück on 23 tween August and November 1945. Is she the for- April 1945, after crossing Denmark, where they were mer secretary of the Finance Minister of Juan Neg- treated and pampered, arrived in Malmö on the Swedish

Culture & History Digital Journal 8(2), December 2019, e024. eISSN 2253-797X, doi: https://doi.org/10.3989/chdj.2019.024 6 • Rose Duroux coast on 26 April. In this trip three infants were saved, the Kommando of Leipzig. Care was taken not to repatri- born to a French mother who survived. It should be re- ate them to the Francoist Spain (which, moreover, would membered that in Ravensbrück, between 1944 and 1945, not have wanted it). there were only five survivors out of the 850 births.30 It would be interesting to see what the ambassadors of One of the evacuees (“the revenants”) of the first con- Spain in Stockholm or Paris wrote to their Minister at that voy of liberation by the Swedish Red Cross, Germaine time. Tillion (1973: 80), a good ethnologist, created in situ “re- vised lists” and managed to identify 336 released peo- Continuation of Scandinavian aid in the immediate ple.31 post-war period The second transport left for Sweden on 25 April. On 28 April, a Red Cross car still managed to extract twenty- During the following two years, Sweden and Den- six patients from the camp. mark would not forget their evacuees either. Contacts In northern Germany, Sweden was not without diffi- were maintained and even a Swedish family offered to culty carrying out its repatriation work, Kommando by shelter a child.35 Voix et Visages portrayed the three voy- Kommando, saving the deportees in extremis. One thinks, ages offered in 1946-1947 by Denmark and Sweden to for example, of the Kommandos of Bendorf, Neu- twenty deportees received in families.36 I do not know, at engamme, Sasel or Ochzensol.32 present, whether there was a Spanish woman amongst It should be emphasized that all returnees by the them. What is certain is that the gratitude of the survivors White Buses had a medical stay of two to three months or of Ravensbrück is palpable and durable; For example, its more. The deportees were housed in various centers concrete and symbolic expression was evident in a first- (Trelleborg, Ryd, Göteborg, Malmö) and received first class tablecloth offered to Count Bernadotte by the depor- aid. Communal rooms and schools were transformed into tees who had returned from Sweden: “This tablecloth car- hospices. Volunteer nurses served exhausted women and ries a tricoloured bouquet in the centre and, on the edge, gave survivors psychological support. Some of them re- between Swedish colours, the names of the comrades call the “incredible generosity of Senator Branting” (Gel- saved by the intervention of Count Bernadotte.”37 ly: 2013). The Press highlighted this. The civilian popula- In short: Jean-Claude Favez and Sébastien Farré were tion readily offered shelter and food. not wrong when they pointed out that the ICRC’s inter- A French legation photographed each of them to cre- vention for the liberation and rescue of women from Ra- ate identity papers. Their list was broadcast on French ra- vensbrück remained, rightly or wrongly, in the shadows dio and published in one of the dailies. of the one led by Bernadotte.

“Mid-June, airplane repatriations were organized. Every Another note two days or so, fifteen to twenty women landed at Le Bourget before joining the Hotel Lutetia by bus. The We will not delve into the punctual aid that the depor- last women returned in October. After several weeks of tees were able to receive in France from 1945 to 1947 convalescence in Sweden, these deportees returned to (such as the sending of furniture or medicines by the Don their country in better condition than the other return- Suisse).38 On their return, deportees –including Spanish ees.” (Dufayel: 2015) women– were able to benefit unequally from aid of nation- al, regional, municipal, associative or humanitarian organi- All the survivors had experienced a highly human zations, in particular the American “Committee” of mutual Swedish welcome. Odette Fabius (1986: 209) simply assistance: American Friends Service, American Joint An- summarizes this feeling experienced by the women who tifascist or the Unitarian Service39; The latter would de- came back from Sweden: “We were admirably received, serve more than the three lines which I devote to them fed, pampered, spoilt.” here; Their “Home” in Meillon attached to the Warsaw There were also returns by boat, as Claude Bloch tes- Hospital in Toulouse opened its doors to the Spanish vic- tifies: tims of the Nazis and received in 1947, amongst others, some old Ravensbrück survivors: María González, Mer- “So we spent two months in Sweden. We were well 40 cared for. Then we were taken to a mountain hotel. And cedes Núñez, María Llenas, Isabel Ruiz, Neus Català, etc. on 14 July, we were reembarked on a line steamer in Gothenburg, round the British Isles, as the Pas-de-Cal- CONCLUSIONS ais was mined. We landed in Cherbourg on 20 July. And after the usual checks, we were brought back to Paris.”33 We have seen that the fate of the Spanish women was inextricably linked to that of the deported women who Amongst the “French” returnees, one can include, were called the “Frenchwomen of Ravensbrück”. But some Spanish women; I could identify only four in the while some returned to their own country, the others were first convoy to Sweden where they spent a few months: accepted into a land of exile. Certainly these Spanish María Beguiristain, born Guesalaga34; Amanda García, women were no longer the “undesirables” of xenophobic known as Carmen Lafuente; Rita Pérez; Elisa Masallès, France according to the decree on 12 November 1938 born Ruiz, also known as Elisa Ruiz Garrido, passed by since the decree on 15th March 1945 gave them the status

Culture & History Digital Journal 8(2), December 2019, e024. eISSN 2253-797X, doi: https://doi.org/10.3989/chdj.2019.024 Help of neutral countries in the return to life of the Women deportees from Ravensbrück camp. The Spanish Women case • 7 of “political refugees” (without civil rights). One can im- 28 janvier 1946. International Military Tribunal Nuremberg, agine that the difficulties to overcome were more numer- http://www.fndirp.asso.fr/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/temoign- age_mc_vc_nuremberg.pdf. [accessed 01/September/2016]; see ous for them; But the Spanish survivors would not write also the reports of Vaillant-Couturier and Tillion in the years anything on this grey area. An example: this problematic 1946-1947. stage of the “normalization” of life constituted only the 6 Leonor Rubiano Fernández (03/07/1920–09/02/1945) passed short final paragraph in the book by Mercedes Núñez Tar- through the Women’s Prison, Frauenzuchthaus, Cottbus, North ga, Destinada al crematorio (2011: 153). However, this of Dresden, where the penalties for forced labor for women are “NN” Transit to Ravensbrück. Email of the Municipal Archives author who at one time was Pablo Neruda’s secretary and of Mieres (Asturias) of the 16/09/2016: “In the municipal paddle a fluid writer summarized in radically short terms, the of 1920 apears Leonor Rubiano Fernández, of Rozadas de la many health and humanitarian aids (all in the plural) that Peña, Mieres. Her parents are Germán Rubiano Martínez and allowed her return to physical and psychological normal- María Fernández Fernández and her brothers and sisters Víctor, Quintiliano, Carmen and Justa”. Vaillant-Couturier also cites Ma- ity: “Then there were long parentheses of sanatoria, hos- rie Alonso (Santa Fe de Mondújar, 20/August/ 1910–Aus- pitals, nursing homes, relapses and operating theaters. I chwitz/27/February/1943) who was a member of the “Réseau des have to overcome the fear of returning to normal life”.41 Postiers” (“Postal Network”) and who has a plaque at the Tenon Even then the author waited for the short concluding par- Hospital in Paris where she was a nurse: “Dead for France”. agraph of her work to evoke this difficult return to life. 7 The only place where Germaine Tillion speaks of the Spanish women deportees but this in a general way: Tillion (1973: 26). We would not know, at least by her pen, that one of these 8 The decision to dissolve the ADIR (1945-2005) was taken in “nursing homes” –to mention but one– was that of the March 2005 in order “not to pursue a great and beautiful story Unitarian Service Committee of Meillon in the Pyrenees. which could erode due to lack of combatants”. Other stories of life can be found in the collection of fifty 9 It was only too late, once Franco died, that Ravensbrück’s As- sociation took shape. See his genesis online http://www.amical- testimonies by Neus Català (1994), which deserves to be ravensbruck.org/. [accessed 01/September/2016] hailed for its fight against forgetting the deportation of 10 Between April 1 and May 15, 1945, the guards organized col- Spanish women.42 Many deportees had died when Neus umns of evacuees by roads and railways. It leaves more than was preparing his collection of testimonies. It should be 200000, it comes back less than 32000. noted that, here again, the women witnesses are very dis- 11 Recalled that in 1995, on the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz camp, the ICRC regarded this episode as creet, even silent, on their life’ relearning. “the greatest failure in its history”; Farré; Schubert: 2009. Diction, omission, fiction, silence. For Marcelle 12 For an example of negotiation, see Germaine Tillion and Fran- Soulier, of Clermont-Ferrand, there is no communal ex- cine de la Gorce: “Geneviève was negotiated between Himmler perience of returning to life, “each having had her way of and the Swiss Red Cross following a Himmler’s intervention with the Red Cross so that the latter could send the mail he exorcising the past”. wanted to send to Eisenhower.” http://www.revue-projet.com/ The historiography of the deportation of the Spanish articles/2002-2-itineraire-genevieve-de-gaulle-anthonioz/. [ac- women is slow to come. The 5000 Spanish women who cessed 05/September/2016] died at the Mauthausen concentration camp have rightly 13 Farré specifies: 299 French and one Polish; this would be the monopolized our attention.43 But, in the last analysis, it Countess Karolina Lanckorońska, author of Michelangelo in Ravensbrück: One Woman’s War against the Nazis (2007), seems that the light projected on Mauthausen ended up Cambridge, Mass., Da Capo. The ICRC keeps: Returnees, pho- reflecting on theSpanish women of Ravensbrück. tos upon arrival in Switzerland, report by Dr. A. Jost. 14 http://florentinejeansueur.webnode.fr/news/la-liberation- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS de-florentine/. [Accessed 15/September/2016] 15 In the convoy of the “27000”, that of Geneviève de Gaulle This article forms part of the project “European Hu- (27372), there were at least 5 deportees born in Spain: 27534 manitarian Aid in France during the Second World War”. Roger Neige; 27181 Kerwich Laure; 27964 Ruiz de Angulo Ref.: HAR2014-58043-P, Ministerio de Economía y Elisa; 27244 Pérez Rita; 27973 Roques Marie. Competitividad, Gobierno de España. 16 “Theoretically all ‘NN’ prisoners (Nacht und Nebel) had left the camp on 2 March for Mauthausen. At the same time that the ‘NN’ (about 800, I do not have the number present in memory) NOTES left Gypsies with their children...” 17 S. Farré refers to columns 35, 36 and 37. The women trans- 1 In relation to the presented global estimation, see especially ferred to Mauthausen obtained, after negotiations between the Anne-Marie, Bauer (1993), J. Fleury and M.-S. Binetuy; B. Red Cross and the RSHA (Reichssicherheitshauptamt), an early Strebel; Claire Andrieu (2008); http://www.afmd.asso.fr/Les- release as well as the still valid French, Belgian, Luxembourg Francaises-a-Ravensbruck.html. [accessed 01/September/2016] and the Netherlands 2 I think of the memories M.-J. Chombart de Lauwe, G. Tillion, 18 Testimony of Violette Maurice, http://forezhistoire.free.fr/images/23- G. de Gaulle Antonioz, S. Veil, and many others. Among the Village-de-Forez-1985.pdf. [accessed 26/September/2016] essential works, I will remember here: If This is a Man of Pri- 19 Http://www.monument-mauthausen.org/spip.php?page=search mo Levi; Auschwitz and After of Charlotte Delbo (1971). In [accessed 26/September/2016]. particular the bibliography on personal reconstruction (or non- 20 In these expeditions slip off the officially French Spanish reconstruction) after the Holocaust is abundant. women. Thus would have passed by St. Gall, Segura Montes 3 Voix et Visages, N° 1, June 1946. and Garcia Bayena. In Toute une vie de résistance, Marie-Jo 4 The Germaine Tillion’s Study is based on the International Chombart de Lauwe evokes the surprises of evacuation: “It is Tracing Services of KL Buchenwald, custodian of the archives said that the Russians are approaching on one side, the Ameri- of the Hasag Kommando in Leipzig-Schönefeld. cans on the other. Liberation comes to us. Many camps are re- 5 Témoignage de Madame Marie-Claude Vaillant-Couturier sur treating on Mauthausen. Women even find their husbands.” In Auschwitz et Ravensbrück. Quarante-quatrième journée. Lundi fact, we find “Alphonsine” (Bueno) and “Joseph” (Ester), see

Culture & History Digital Journal 8(2), December 2019, e024. eISSN 2253-797X, doi: https://doi.org/10.3989/chdj.2019.024 8 • Rose Duroux

Documents concerning the repatriation of Ester and his wife 40 The list of the 50 Spanish convalescents (mostly men), which Alfonsina. 1945-1946 and n.d.: Internationaal Instituut voor So- followed one another from July to September 1947, included ciale Geschiedenis, Amsterdam, Nederland. Neus Català (July-August 1947) and Mercedes Núñez (August- https://search.socialhistory.org/Record/ARCH02428/ September 1947), as well as their future husbands. Two USC ArchiveContentList. representatives, Draper and Jaeger, advocated in June 1948 the [accessed 01/October/2016] arrest of the center of Meillon “under the philo-communist in- 21 Testimonial Video of 120 min by Koulikoff Martínez in 1996 fluence of the Amicale of the deportees”. (BDIC). 41 Arrested in Spain on 10/11/1939, Mercedes Núñez Targa was 22 Feliciana, daughter of Justo Pinto Calvo and Eugenia Navas transferred to the Ventas Women’s Prison (Madrid). Her testimo- Muñoz, born on June 9, 1914 in El Barraco (Ávila), married in ny dates from 1967: Cárcel de Ventas. To resist the prison, she 1936 to Joseph Raymond Bierge (number 1285), transferred to will have recourse to choral singing, comrades’ drawing, activi- Mauthausen more than two thousand deportees. See: ties she will perform in Ravensbrück and Hasag-Leipzig Kom- http://aragonesesexilioydeportacion.blogspot.fr/2012/01/feliciana- mando, where she is with the Spanish María Benítez, Mercedes pintos-navas-superviviente-de.html. [accessed 01/October/2016] Bernal, Carmen Boatell, María Ferrer, Constanza Martinez, Elisa 23 ADIR offers other places of convalescence, with no fee, in Ruiz, Marita [Van Aal]. Hospitalized on her return to the Hospital Nice, Chambéry or in the Black Forest. Bichat (Paris), she goes to Carcassonne by sanitary train to testify 24 “L’activité du service social”, Voix et Visages, N° 1, June 1946 ; against René Bach. Http://www.ara.cat/cultura/dones-Ravens- “Nos centres de convalescence en Suisse”. Voix et Visages, N° bruck-vencen-loblit_0_849515106.html. [accessed 08/09/2016]. 3, October 1946. 42 The original Spanish version dates from 1984 (De la Resisten- 25 “L’activité du service social”, art. cit.: 3. In the Report of Janu- cia a la Deportación. 50 testimonios de mujeres españolas. ary 1947 on the “Assemblée Générale”, the number of mem- Adgena, Barcelona). bers amounts to 1151. 43 In Spanish Bibliography on the Mauthausen Camp: J. Borràs; 26 Farewell to Swiss: Voix et Visages, Nos 3 & 4, October & No- M. Fabréguet; E. Pons Prades; B. Bermejo and many others. vember 1946 (see Sivadon). 27 “Convalescence”, Voix et Visages, N° 11-12, February-March REFERENCES 1948: 4-5. 28 Affirmed from 1946, in the first two issues of Voix et Visages, Amicale de Ravensbrück et Association de déportées et internées de by the General Secretary of ADIR, Claire Davinroy (Davinroy, la Résistance (1965) Les Françaises à Ravensbrück. NRF Gal- Claire, 1946a; Davinroy, Claire. 1946b). limard, Paris. 29 I summarize here the journey that can be read in Les Françaises Andrieu, Claire (2008) “Réflexions sur la Résistance à travers à Ravensbrück, op. cit. l’exemple des Françaises à Ravensbrück”. Histoire@Politique. 30 The third survivor is Jean-Claude Passerat. See Aylmer- Politique, culture, société, N° 5, May-August: 3-63. Roubenne (1997). Aylmer-Roubenne, Madeleine (1997) J’ai donné la vie dans un 31 Three times Count F. Bernadotte (he explains in 1945 in La camp de la mort. JC Lattès, Paris. Fin) meets Himmler, and only three times. And three times in Bauer, Anne-Marie (1993) Les oubliés et les ignorés: Claudine Hohenlychen, in the clinic of Prof. Gebhardt [ex-fellow of dans la Résistance (récit), Preface Geneviève de Gaulle Antho- Himmler]. The archives of the Swedish Red Cross have pre- nioz, Mercure de France, Paris. served “the drawings that Eliane Jeannin-Garreau had made in Bermejo, Benito; Checa, Sandra (2006) Libro memorial: españoles Ravensbrück, according to Pavillard. deportados a los campos nazis 1940-1945. Ministerio de la 32 Testimony of Béatrix de Toulouse-Lautrec (Toulouse Lautrec, Cultura, Madrid. 1991): 25/April/1944 departure from Ravensbrück – 27/ Bernadotte, Comte Folke (1945) La fin. Mes négociations humani- June/1944 arrived in France. In her convoy –she sais– there taires en Allemagne au printemps 45 et leurs conséquences were a number of aristocrats. Other testimonies in the collective politiques, Trad. Madeleine Blanc-Paulsen. Éditions Marguerat, work of the Françaises à Ravensbrück, op. cit. Lausanne. 33 http://www.chrd.lyon.fr/static/chrd/contenu/pdf/pedago/CNRD/ Català, Neus (1994) Ces Femmes Espagnoles de la Résistance à la CHRD_CNRD%202014-2015.pdf. [accessed 01/October/2016] Déportation. Témoignages vivants de Barcelone à Ravens- 34 María Beguiristain born in Zarautz (Guipúzcoa) on the brück, Preface Geneviève de Gaulle Antonioz, Trad. Caroline 03/12/1907; Interned at Compiègne on 28/04/1943 and at Raven- Langlois. Éditions Tirésias, Paris. sbrück on 30/04/1944, Number 19425; Released on 23/04/1945. Chombart de Lauwe, Marie-Jo (1998) Toute une vie de résistance. os 35 “Convalescence” and “Chronique sociale”, Voix et Visages, N Éditions Graphein–Fndirp, with the sponsorship of the “Fonda- 11-12, February-March 1948: 4-6. tion pour la Mémoire de la Déportation”, Paris. 36 “Retour du Danemark”. Voix et Visages, No 3, October 1946: 3. Davinroy, Claire (1946a) “Ce que sera notre bulletin”. Voix et Vis- 37 “Notre foyer”. Voix et visages, N° 4, November 1946: 3. The ages, N° 1, June. ADIR reiterates this at the general meeting of December 1946. Davinroy, Claire (1946b) “Nos centres de convalescence en Sui- La Contemporaine ex-BDIC, Delta Rés 797/I, Dossier 13, and sse”. Voix et Visages, N° 2, August-September. Delta Rés 797/IV, Dossier 77, correspondence concerning repa- Delbo Charlotte ([1965] 1998) Le Convoi du 24 janvier. Éditions de triation by Sweden. Minuit, Paris. 38 “Assemblée générale” (of 15 Dec. 1946). Voix et Visages, No 5, Delbo Charlotte (1971) La mesure de nos jours. Auschwitz et après January 1947: 3-6, p. 3: “We were lucky enough to receive fur- III. Éditions de Minuit, Paris. niture from Switzerland and, by our care, some comrades could Dufayel, Pierre-Emmanuel (2015) Lutetia, 1945: Le retour des dé- be completely refurnished. Thus, for example, we were able to portés. completely rebuild the home of a household whose husband Fabius, Odette (1986) Un lever de soleil sur le Mecklembourg, Mé- and wife had both been deported”. In Voix et Visages, No 8, moires. Albin Michel, Paris. 1947: 2, reference is made to medicines obtained by the Don Farré, Sébastien (2012) “Le CICR et les détenus des camps de concen- suisse, elsewhere to a parcel of the Canadian Red Cross, etc. tration nationaux-socialistes (1942-1945)”. Revue internationale 39 See the works of Aurelio Velázquez Hernández on the Unitarian de la Croix-Rouge, Sélection Française, Vol. 94/ 4: 191-219. Service Committee (USC): “La ayuda humanitaria europea en Farré, Sébastien; Schubert, Yan (2009) “L’illusion de l’objectif. Le Francia durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial”. Conference at délégué du CICR Maurice Rossel et les photographies de Ther- Schweizerisches Sozialarchiv Zürich/UNED, 02/09/2016 (work esienstadt”. Le Mouvement social, April-June: 65-83. in progress). The City Council of Zürich donated an X-ray ma- Farré, Sébastien (2014) Colis de guerre. Secours alimentaire et or- chine to the Warsaw hospital in Toulouse, supported by the Uni- ganisations humanitaires (1914-1947). Presses Universitaires tarian Service. de Rennes, Rennes.

Favez, Jean-Claude (1988) “Le proche et le lointain. L’accueil et Nuñez Targa, Mercedes (1967) Cárcel de Ventas. Éditions de la Li- l’asile en Suisse au printemps 1945”. Revue Suisse d’Histoire, brairie du Globe, Paris. Vol. 38: 390-402. Núñez Targa, Mercedes (2011) Destinada al crematorio. De Argelès Favez, Jean-Claude (1989) “1942: le Comité international de la a Ravensbrück: las vivencias de una resistente republicana es- Croix-Rouge, les déportations et les camps”. Vingtième Siècle. pañola. Renacimiento, Sevilla. Revue d’histoire, N° 21: 45-56. Pavillard, Anne-Marie (2008) “Les archives de l’Association des Fleury, Jacqueline; Binetruy, Marie-Suzanne (1995) “Ravens- anciennes déportées et internées de la Résistance (ADIR) à la brück”. In Manson, Jean dir., Leçons de ténèbres, Résistants et BDIC”. Histoire@Politique, 2, N° 5. déportés. Fndir-Unadif/Perrin, Paris. Roig, Montserrat (1977) Els catalans als camps nazis. Edicions 62, Gaulle-Anthonioz Geneviève de (1977) “Introduction à l’assemblée Barcelona. générale de l’ADIR du 26 mars 1977”. Voix et Visages, N° 156, Sivadon, Jane (1946), “Adieu à la Suisse”. Voix et Visages, N° 4, March-April. November. Gelly, Violaine; Gradvohl, Paul (2013) Charlotte Delbo. Arthème Strebel, Bernhard (2005) Ravensbrück, Un complexe concentra- Fayard, Paris. tionnaire. Fayard, Paris. Koulikoff Martinez, Ángela (1996) Testimonial video (St-Denis- Tillion, Germaine (1947) “Le procès de Ravensbrück. Ce qui se Basilique, 15 october, 120 min). In Memorias de los republica- passe à Hambourg”. Voix et Visages, N° 5, January. nos españoles exiliados en Francia, La Contemporaine ex- Tillion, Germaine (1973) Ravensbrück. Seuil, Coll. “L’Histoire im- BDIC, Series Spanish War (1936-1939)-Exile. médiate”, Paris. Laffitte, Henri; Bourgeois, Pierre (2009) “La libération et le rapa- Tillion, Germaine, Gorce, Francine de la (2002) “Un itinéraire: Ge- triement des déportés”. In Wahl, Alfred, L’Allemagne de 1945 a neviève de Gaulle Anthonioz”. Revue Projet, 1 February. nos jours. A. Colin, Paris: 341-352. Toulouse Lautrec, Béatrix (de) (1991) J’ai eu vingt ans à Ravens- Mezzasalma, Philippe (2003) “L’ADIR, ou une certaine histoire de brück. Librairie Académique Perrin, Paris. la déportation des femmes de France”. Matériaux pour Vaillant-Couturier, Marie-Claude (1946) Mes 27 mois entre Aus- l’histoire de notre temps, N° 69, January-March: 49-60. chwitz et Ravensbrück. Éd. du Mail, Coll. “Grands discours Monnier, Éric; Exchaquet-Monnier, Brigitte (2013) Retour à la vie. français et internationaux”, Paris. L’accueil en Suisse romande d’anciennes déportées françaises de la Résistance (1945-1947). Éditions Alphil, Neuchâtel.

Culture & History Digital Journal 8(2), December 2019, e024. eISSN 2253-797X, doi: https://doi.org/10.3989/chdj.2019.024